trustfell | Didn't we just do this last week?

Didn't we just do this last week?

[It's starting to look like this is going to be a weekly occurrence.

Just like last week, Cabanela waits a while before he makes his rounds, writing everyone quick notes and sliding them under each occupied door.]

Stay strong.
If you don't want to be alone tonight, meet in the dining hall.
-Cabanela

[Like last week, Cabanela hasn't bothered to provide anyone with food-- that would just be... rude right now, he thinks. Upon first entering, you'll notice that there are now four lit candles in the center of one of the tables.

Feel free to leave mementos for the dead; it's probably appreciated.]

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It's nothin', Inspector. I got some bacon bits ready if you want some.

[This bowl only has the onions and cheese on it. Better be safe than sorry when it comes to dietary restrictions.]

Not too bad, surprisingly. I'm mostly surprised from the execution, but after a while, the shock wears off. Can't say the same for the rest of us here. [He tilts his head to the other side of the room.</sall.]

Bacon bits sound great, actually!

[He's not a vegetarian, fortunately.]

What happened to Undyne was... probably the most shocking part of the execution.

[How depressing that had been.]

I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't... that. To be hoooonest, it looked like the Conductor hadn't been expecting it either.

[He nods and heads back to the kitchen with the bowl. In less than a minute, he returns with plenty of bacon mixed into the potatoes. Ready to serve.]

I wouldn't have been surprised if her blood was a different color, but poofin' into dust? Not expected. [It sort of ruined the whole tension.] You think her species actually made of nanotech, or whatever they call it in her country?

Nanotech?

[He has no idea what the word means, but he has an idea just the same.]

Maybe so. She didn't talk much about her species, did she? Maaaybe I should have asked her about it, but I didn't want to offend her.

[Dangit, someone else from a point in history where it wasn't invented]

There's a lot I woulda like to know. Like why they all lived underground, or what her actual species name was. Heck, I wanted to know more about Byakuren, too. They've both got mysteries behind them we'll never solve.

[He sits on the neighboring chair.]

Thinkin' about it, I barely know nothin' about most of you. Like yourself, Inspector. Where you do come from? What's your first name, even? [Cabanela has to be a last name, there's no other explanation.]

Aaall I can think of is that they weren't living underground 'cause they wanted to, or because that's how her species lives-- she said she wanted to be able to see the sun.

And then there's Byakuren, who was a nun, but willing to fight to the death...

[At the question, he almost laughs.]

No one calls me by my first name, maaaan.

[And unfortunately, Ghost Trick never gives us a first name, so it's headcanon power hour.

He does give the name of his country, though, which is also never stated in the game because what are Ghost Trick settings.]

My given name's George, but I prefer the surname.

I don't know, but I thought warrior monks were a thing that only happened in movies.

[That's what Byakuren had to be. Warrior nuns are a new thing to him, but two weeks of living in Graceside Academy should have taught him that everyone is full of surprises by now.]

George Cabanela. Got a nice ring to it, but if you like, I can keep callin' you Inspector.

A warrior nun, huh? It's a possibility, and it would explain why she could hold her own in the fight.

[It does sound like something from the movies, but given that they have a vampire among them, he's not about to dismiss it.]

"Inspector" is juuust fine!

[He nods in affirmation. Inspector. That's his title, after all.]

First a ghoul, then a fightin' nun, a vampire, and now some kinda alien that ain't carbon-based. Now wonder the Conductor said we were interestin'. Well, some of us anyway, but I won't be surprised if you had somethin' you weren't tellin' us.

[Cabanela gets a judgy look.] Are you?

[That earns a quiet laugh. Cabanela shakes his head.]

Nah, there's nothing I'm not tellin' you. I'm just a crazy character who happens to be a cop.

You don't seem that crazy to me. I know plenty of folks who have hobbies outside of their jobs, and I commend you for bein' a man of the law with some sense of a social life.

[Unlike certain people on Mars...]

Same with me, only minus the quirks. I'm just a normal guy who used to run a saloon until it's AI fell in love with a Martian while bein' loved after by a piano AI, which lead to the piano's untimely demise and her walkin' away, leavin' me with no job...and nothin' to do.

[He's very normal.]

Can't think of a reason why I was even picked to come here in the first place.

[........

.............

.....

You know. This is the craziest thing he's ever heard, and Cabanela has seen some things in his time.]

Run that by me agaaaain?

[Goooood not this again.]

I used to run a saloon. It's got an AI. I upgraded it to be more intelligent, only it made her more prone to thinkin' for herself. She decided to shift around her parts so that she could walk away. Now she's roamin' somewhere on Mars, causin' trouble, most likely.

I see. That sounds like it's.... pretty inconvenient.

[Look, he's from an Ace Attorney-esque universe where they still use rotary phones and VHS tapes. He's only heard of AIs in the movie sense.]

Maybe she'll get bored and come back.

Doubt it. She's mighty upset at humanity at the time, especially since the Marshal shot the piano to death the moment he confessed his feelin's for her. That ain't the sorta thing you easily forgive.

Which is why I'm not goin' around askin' you to call me "Barkeep": I don't got a place of work anymore.

Ahh, I see.

[It sounds like the plot of a movie more than real life, but hey. After everything they've been through, he doesn't doubt how true it is. He's just... terribly confused in general.]

Humanity sure has its disadvantages.

[Undyne didn't like humans, either.]

[Mordecai doesn't see anything wrong with humanity. They're just as great as any other alien species with their own strengths and weaknesses.]

Well, not all of us. The piano was mostly upset that releasin' radiation that caused us to spontaneously sing was enough to have us realize the "love in our hearts", which works as well as you think it does. It was mostly the Marshal's fault for bein' so callous.

[....]

Sounds like you come from an interesting place.

[He has no idea what any of this is.]

Inspector, I can tell that sometime's botherin' you, and seein' that most people here didn't believe I came from Mars, I think you don't either.

[Does he have to take out the photograph again?]

It's a biiit hard to swallow, you have to admit.

[It's not the same as calling him a liar, at least.]

I've been told that too many times. [Both the unbelievable and liar bits.]

Weeell, we also have had our fair share of unusual people-- at least, as far as I'm concerned.

"I'm from Mars" is a biiit easier to believe after meeting Undyne.

[Sorry, fish lady.]

Technically, I'm from Earth - as that is where I was born - but to most of you folks, it don't matter much. Mars dwellers from Earth, humans born on Mars, that must not make much different to you Earth natives.

Well, not Earth, but Earth-like planets, for the majority of us.

Well, there's that, and the fact that the furthest anyone has gotten in space where I'm from is the moon.

We're a liiittle behind the times.

All of you are. It's like you're all concentrated around the same century with the sole exception of me and possibly Youko, whenever she's from. [Alien alien alien alien.It's lonely, Cabanela.]

Didn't we just do this last week?

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